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Show 340 WESTERN WILDS. one unanswerable question : Why should his little friend, who had once liked him, now dislike and shun him? But if all this was a mystery to Manson, it was clear enough to the Mormon father, who had twenty years more experience in the ways of this wicked world; clearer still to the ward teachers, who visited and catechised every family in their jurisdiction once a week, and clearest of all to the wary bishop of the sixth ward, whose business it was to know every thing that was going on in his bishoprick. They knew, none better, the strange impulses that wake up in the transition period of life ; they knew the various motives that influence men to think they are serving the Creator, when they are only moved by the creature. And now look out, young man, for move which way you will, you are almost certain to make a mistake. A few months more, and you will either be a bond- servant of Brigham Young bound to theocracy by ties you can not sever, and by oaths you dare not break/ o# r an# enemy to be# har. assed$ and# in ti# me ex# pelle, d. $,.$ A new prophet had arisen, and John Banks was wild with joy. Joseph Morris, a simple Welshman, had seen the heavens opened, and through long ranks of shining horsemen the three celestial messengers had come from the throne of Eloheim and bestowed on him the keys of this last ministry. Burning with zeal, he called on Brigham Young to announce his mission, and was dismissed with a short, sharp, and filthy response, which shocked but did not discourage him. Mor-ris at once called upon the people to rally to the true standard, and converts flocked to him from all over the Territory. They were no longer without a living oracle. Brigham had no message to them from the skies ; he was a dumb prophet. Joseph Morris abounded in visions and revelations. He was " the messenger of God, and the true priestly successor of Joseph Smith. To John Banks this was the fullness of the gospel indeed ; he had grieved over the one- man power, and sighed for the Brotherhood of the Saints, and in this mission he saw new hope. For seventeen years there had been no vo* ice from heaven, but now Joseph Morris had revelations so fast that four clerks two Eng-lish and two Danish were required to write them down. The re-proach of the Saints, that there had been no revelator since the death of Joseph Smith, was now taken away ; and John Banks sought his young friend Thomas James, with the glad tidings. He,- too, longed for a living prophet, and in a month was as zealous a " Morrisite " as he had once been a Brighamite, and, with five hundred others, gathered to the camp on the Weber. There revelations, charms, visions, coun- |